The 10 Best Movies You Probably Didn't See in 2015

Some years, the Angulo brothers were allowed to go outside only once. Some years, they weren’t allowed out at all. The Wolfpack---eerie, compelling, and, astonishingly, true---is a documentary about six brothers (Mukunda, Narayana, Govinda, Bhagavan, Krisna, and Jagadesh) raised in almost complete isolation in a housing project apartment on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Cut off from contact beyond each other, their parents, and their younger sister, the brothers learn about the outside world through movies, which they painstakingly reenact and film. (Director Crystal Moselle, who won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance for The Wolfpack, met the brothers as they were walking down First Avenue, donning black Ray-Bans in a homage to Reservoir Dogs and waist-long black hair.) Come for the brothers’ genuine adoration of The Fighter, The Dark Knight, and Pulp Fiction; stay to decipher the well-intentioned, disturbed logic of secluding your family from the outside world. —Charley Locke

Back when it debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in January, Tangerine got a lot of attention for the fact that it was filmed entirely on iPhone 5s. That was cool and all, but what it should’ve gotten noticed for was the fact that it was a frenetic, weird treasure. Set largely around the Donut Time on the corner of Santa Monica Boulevard and Highland Avenue, Sean Baker’s indie is about the day that prostitute Sin-Dee (Kitana Kiki Rodriguez) gets out of jail and finds out from her best friend Alexandra (Mya Taylor) that her boyfriend cheated on her while she was locked up. The rest is a funny/dramatic/gotta-see-it-to-believe-it journey through Los Angeles as Sin-Dee goes looking for her boyfriend—and the woman with whom he was cheating on her. —Angela Watercutter

There’s a lot to enjoy about Clouds of Sils Maria, but will probably be remembered as That Movie Where People Started to Take Kristen Stewart Seriously. (This could have been Still Alice, but she got a bit overshadowed by Julianne Moore’s Oscar-winning performance.) The movie, about the complicated relationship between a famous actress (played by Juliette Binoche) and her personal assistant (Stewart), got the former Twilight star France’s Cesar award for best supporting actress, making her the first American actress to do so. And if semi-obscure French awards don’t convince you, just trust us when we say, the performances in Olivier Assayas’ tense drama are great, and you won’t be disappointed. —Angela Watercutter

Because it tells the intimate thoughts of a 15-year-old, Diary of a Teenage Girl lets you into an unapologetically self-absorbed---and absorbing---inner world. Because it’s based on the eponymous graphic novel by Phoebe Gloeckner, it includes extraordinary imaginings and depictions, mapping out that mental space. Because it’s set in San Francisco in 1976, it features crocheted bedspreads in dilapidated Victorians and bell-bottom overalls and a soundtrack that includes T. Rex and Frankie Miller. But Diary of a Teenage Girl owes its true genius to Bel Powley for her performance as Minnie, cunning and naive and achingly ready for her sexual awakening. Add in very strong performances from Kristen Wiig, as Minnie’s distracted, bohemian mother, and Alexander Skarsgard, as her mother's boyfriend with whom Minnie has an affair, and you get the year's best genuine, morally uncomfortable coming-of-age story. —Charley Locke

Dope has been hailed as a coming-of-age movie for this generation, which may seem odd, considering the protagonist, Malcolm (Shameik Moore), and his two pals (Tony Revolori, as Jib, and Kiersey Clemons, as Diggy) revere the hip-hop culture of the 1990s. But beyond the flattops, bucket hats and penchant for Eric B. & Rakim on a Walkman, Dope is a self-aware take on race and self-identity in contemporary America. Directed by Rick Famuyiwa, it tells the story of how Malcolm, a nerdy high school student in Inglewood, California, becomes entangled in a local molly ring and uses bitcoin to find his way out. Plus, the soundtrack---featuring Digable Planets, A Tribe Called Quest, and Naughty By Nature---doesn't disappoint. —Charley Locke

David Foster Wallace’s literary legacy is so daunting and problematic that a sprawling biopic lionizing the author would be insufferable. But thankfully James Ponsoldt, director of two other bleak and critically-acclaimed films about depressed protagonists (Smashed and The Spectacular Now), got the chance to make a narrowly-focused film about the late author right at the moment the cult of personality around DFW began to spring up. Jason Segel gives a tremendously understated performance, and Jesse Eisenberg continued to demonstrate his gift for playing actual people as symbols, turning Rolling Stone writer David Lipsky into an archetype of inadequacy in the face of greatness. The End Of The Tour was a Sundance hit that fizzled over the summer, but it deserves to be remembered for not adhering to frustrating biopic tropes. —K.M. McFarland

We’ll admit, we’re a little biased on Love & Mercy—fans of the Beach Boys are likely more keen on movies about the Beach Boys than most. That said, watching young Brian Wilson (played by Paul Dano) craft some of his band’s best music (aka Pet Sounds) is a beautiful thing to behold, even if you don’t love their sound. And Love & Mercy is nothing if not a moving look at the effects of fame and genius. (It bounces back and forth between the Pet Sounds years and the time when Wilson, played by John Cusack, was older and struggling with mental illness.) And, when it’s over, you might just love the Beach Boys even if you didn’t before. —Angela Watercutter

The protagonists of Nick Hornby’s most prominent novels—High Fidelity, About a Boy—are typically men suffering from arrested development. But Hornby’s screenplay work, 2009’s An Education, last year’s Cheryl Strayed adaptation Wild, and now Brooklyn, have shown that he’s capable of putting forth captivating female characters as well. Based on Colm Toibin’s novel, the film centers on Eilis Lacey (Saoirse Ronan), a young Irish immigrant to New York in the 1950s. It’s so plain and straightforward that it risks boredom at nearly every turn, but it has a star who makes even night classes in bookkeeping compelling. Sure, it grossly overlooks the problems with both of Eilis’ suitors in favor of keeping the emotional focus on the difference between home and homeland. But Ronan’s performance alone is worth the price of admission. —K.M. McFarland

OK, so you might have seen Carol—it got a pretty wide release and a lot of buzz as Oscar season heated up. But if you didn’t catch director Todd Haynes’s latest movie, you definitely missed out. Based on Patricia Highsmith’s novel The Price of Salt, it’s a surprisingly tense look at the (largely forbidden) affair between 1950s wife and mother, Carol (Cate Blanchett), and a shopgirl named Therese (Rooney Mara). Textured and beautifully shot, it captures something so hard to get right on film: what love feels like when you worry it might ruin you. —Angela Watercutter

Cobain: Montage of Heck, the first documentary about Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain made with the consent and cooperation of his entire family, didn’t have to reach for content. Cobain’s daughter with Courtney Love, Frances Bean Cobain, gave director Brett Morgan access to hours of audiotape diaries Kurt recorded throughout his life. Those first-person monologues, combined with home videos and family interviews, compile a portrait of the most iconic rock musician of the past 25 years. Buzz Osborne of the Melvins had some issues with the factual accuracy of Cobain’s supposed personal stories, but it is nevertheless the closest any documentarian has gotten to accurately depicting Cobain’s psyche throughout his childhood and into his teens when, along with Krist Noveselic and Dave Grohl, he changed the American music landscape forever. —K.M. McFarland

Share

Look, we get it. With all the superhero and genre movies Hollywood releases each year, it’s hard to keep up with the offerings at your local art house theater. (Not to mention a lot of places don’t have indie cinemas.) So it’s really easy to miss a lot of great flicks. Below are our picks for the best ones you might have missed. Think of it as a What to Watch for on Netflix in 2016 field guide. Happy hunting!